


Panic

by masterwords



Category: Schitt's Creek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-24 19:28:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20912891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masterwords/pseuds/masterwords
Summary: A brief and kind of fluffy moment in time, when Rose Apothecary was new and David and Patrick were new, but things were not all rainbows and roses.





	Panic

“David?” Patrick called, rushing to his partner. One minute he was helping a customer, and the next he was on the floor. The customer, an older woman who had quite a few questions about bath salts and hand creams, looked mortified standing there. Patrick recognized her from the Jazzagals, but he didn't know her name. He worried about her, how this would go over for the store, what she would do. 

“He just...” she stammered, setting the jar of bath salts down on the shelf and taking a step back. Patrick slid down onto his knees and touched David's face. 

“David?” he asked again, his hand brushing against David's cheek as he moved to check his pulse and breathing. 

“Shall I call the paramedics?” the customer asked, rifling through her purse for what Patrick assumed would be her phone. He swallowed hard and shook his head. 

“I don't think,” he stammered, racking his brain for what to do right now. He'd taken first aid courses plenty, he knew what to do, but when it was your partner there on the floor it was a little hard to focus on the steps needing to be taken. He took a sharp, deep breath and rested his ear against David's chest. “He's breathing, I don't think we need to do that. Can you get me a bottle of water from the fridge?” His heart felt like it would beat right out of his chest. He'd never seen anyone just collapse like that before, like a ton of bricks. He heard when David's body hit the floor, he felt it in his bones. David had seemed fine just minutes before – a little quiet this morning, perhaps, but fine. The customer knelt down beside the two men and put her hand on Patrick's shoulder as she handed him a cold bottle of water. 

“Here you are,” she said. “Can I do anything else?”

Patrick shook his head and cracked open the bottle. “No, thank you,” he muttered, pouring some of the water into his hands and patting them against David's cheeks. He watched as David's eyes fluttered open for a moment, and he looked around in a daze. Patrick smiled, relieved more than he thought he should be. 

“David,” he began, pressing his hand against his partner's chest, “Hey.” David blinked against the light a few times and slowly brought his hand to his head, feeling the cold water droplets. 

“What happened?” he asked, his voice hardly above a whisper. The customer squeezed Patrick's shoulder and smiled as she clutched her purse to her chest and left the store without another word. Patrick helped David up into a sitting position and helped him take a few drinks of the chilly water, making a mental note to figure out who the customer had been and get her a little gift as a thank you for sticking around. 

“You fainted like a goat,” Patrick said, trying to inject some humor into the situation. David looked at him, confused. 

“I don't know what that means,” he said, rubbing softly at the back of his head. His whole body was sore from the fall, but he knew he'd hit his head on the floor pretty hard. 

“I'm sure you can figure it out,” Patrick said, handing David the bottle and jogging to the back of the store for a quick moment before returning with an ice pack. “Here.” He held the ice pack gently against the back of David's head and waited for David to reach up and take it, but he never did – David was perfectly happy to let Patrick hold it there. Same old David. 

“I'm sorry,” David began, his eyes cast downward. He hated being vulnerable. This entire incident was mortifying. “I don't know what happened. I was talking to that customer, and just got like...this overwhelming feeling of how...big...this store is? And what if you decided it was too big and left? And what if you realized that I was too much? Because I am too much. I'm damaged goods. And you, you're...not. You're so good. Too good for me. And then I'd be alone again and I can't...and then my chest started feeling tight and then everything went silent and fuzzy and then I woke up and you were basically on top of me, so,” David was stammering now, and Patrick noticed his hands were shaking. Patrick moved closer and put his arm around David, pulling him into a hug. He felt David melt into him, and he was glad that in that moment, sitting beneath the hand creams in their store, that he could bring his partner comfort. David was an anxious person by nature, Patrick knew, but he realized right then exactly how much he carried inside of him and it made Patrick ache. He knew he needed to do better, to reassure his partner, to help shoulder the burden that David carried. 

“You know, David, you're not doing this alone...” Patrick spoke softly, his lips skimming the top of David's head as he talked. “We're in this together. I'm not going anywhere.” Patrick hugged David tight against him, wishing he could take his partner's burden and his pain. He didn't know what David had been through before they met, their relationship was still so fresh and so new, but he did know that there was a lot of baggage that he'd be unpacking for a very long time, and he knew in his heart that it was all worth it. Every bit of it. He was up for the challenge. 

“I'm here.”


End file.
